To Accelerate Change in 2015
2016 will mark the 20th
anniversary of John Kotter’s
Leading Change, a book that’s been
widely recognized as the seminal work in
the field of change management. It
introduced the 8-Step Process for Leading
Change with a message to the reader:
“You can lead change.
Here is how to do it.”
Six years ago,
Dr. Kotter began
observing organizations
as they implemented
the 8-Step Process
with help from his firm.
He saw proof that our
world is moving a great
deal faster than it was in
the early 1990s.
No matter how
you look at it,
the world is
moving faster...
Dr. Kotter also
observed that the rate
at which our world is
changing is increasing,
but our ability to keep
up with it is not.
What has remained the same?
The two fundamental reasons behind most transformations are still the need...
To increase revenues/profits or decrease costs
To become more effective or more efficient
Or both.
1
2
What are some specific reasons to change? Is your organization…
Falling behind the competition today
Ill-prepared to compete in the future
Too slow to execute
Quick to execute but slow to think, strategize, and plan
Too slow to innovate
Too slow or ineffective to integrate M&As
Too siloed to collaborate
Do your leaders and workforce present obstacles? Are they…
Disengaged from their roles, colleagues, managers, customers
Falsely urgent: consumed by constant activity and firefighting
Complacent: lulled into thinking that what got you here will get you there
Lopsided: focused more on management than on leadership
Siloed: known more for boundaries than gateways
We at Kotter International have expanded our
thinking and work
– have enhanced our 8-Step Process –
to give organizations additional capabilities to lead
change under the particular conditions of today’s world.
The breakthrough is in Accelerate, our book length
study published by Harvard in 2014. We have increased
the scope of the 8-Step Process from its original version
to give it reach and potency in 2015 and beyond...
Both versions are relevant and effective today, but they are designed to serve different contexts and objectives
Leading Change’s8-Step Process (1996)
Accelerate’s8-Step Process (2014)
Respond to or affect episodic change in finite and sequential ways.
Run the steps concurrently and continuously.
Drive change with a small, powerful core group.
Form a large volunteer army from up, down, and across the organization to be the change engine.
Function within a traditional hierarchy.
Function in a network flexibly and agilely outside of, but in conjunction with, a traditional hierarchy.
Focus on doing one thing very well in a linear fashion over time.
Constantly seek opportunities, identify initiatives to capitalize on them, and complete them quickly.
The purpose of this eBook is to introduce you to the enhanced 8-Step Process
Your top leaders must describe an opportunity that will appeal to individuals’ heads and hearts and use this statement to raise a large, urgent army of volunteers.
Create a Sense of UrgencySTEP 1
5X
Companies with engaged
employees have
higher shareholder returns
71% of the workforce is actively
disengaged. Annually, this costs U.S. organizations
3 0 0
BILLION
What is your Big Opportunity?
Do you see a Big Opportunity that could ignite the hearts and minds of your people?
Do you know how to identify, articulate and communicate it?
Are you able to connect an external change factor with a special capability of your organization?
What are the stakes if you succeed? Consequences if you fail?
Windows of opportunity are appearing, opening, and closing more quickly than ever before. If you are able to identify even a glimmer of a Big Opportunity, it's important to quickly and urgently engage and mobilize around it before competitors seize the window.
A volunteer army needs a coalition of effective people — coming from its own ranks — to guide it, coordinate it and communicate its activities.
Build a Guiding Coalition
Real collaboration is about stepping
outside of traditional institutional
structures to focus on results. In fact,
there is an 81% correlation between collaboration and innovation.
81%
STEP 2
Is your organization capable of coordinating and sustaining change?
Can you get buy-in from 50% of the organization to drive large-scale change?
Do you have a way to engage a formalized network to take on innovative change initiatives?
Is work on strategic initiatives seen as "Have to" or "Want to"?
Do current hierarchical and silo-based structures stifle communication and engagement?
Consider establishing a Guiding Coalition of engaged individuals from across your organization to help you institute the specific attitudes and practices necessary to launch, drive and — most importantly — sustain change.
Dr. Kotter defines strategic initiatives as targeted and coordinated "activities that, if designed and executed fast enough and well enough, will make your vision a reality."
Form a Strategic Vision and Initiatives
higher return on several key
measures for companies with
well-crafted mission statements
describing why the business exists
and its optimal desired future state.
Business Week attributes
30%
STEP 3
Is your organization aligned under a Vision and how to act on it?
Where in your organization are people aligned around a single idea that inspires them to do things that move ideas forward?
Do people within the organization speak about the goals in the same way with the same priority? If not, how can these be aligned?
If you asked people around the organization about the Change Vision, how many different answers would you get?
The better people can envision where they are going, the more they can focus on specific initiatives that will make that vision a reality. The strategic initiatives best positioned to capitalize on the Big Opportunity should be prioritized and staffed. With whom? That leads us to our next step...
Large-scale change can only occur when very significant numbers of employees amass under a common opportunity and drive in the same direction.
Enlist a Volunteer Army
Organizations with a high number of actively engaged employees have an average of
higher earnings per share than the norm.
147%
STEP 4
Is it possible to create and tap a volunteer network at your organization?
What are examples of people in your organization who "step forward and act"? If there are few examples, what is stopping them?
Are employees invited and encouraged to help your organization implement its strategies? If yes, what are the successes?
How do you ensure that the successes are repeatable? How do you keep the volunteers engaged?
Accelerate explains that "history has demonstrated that it is possible to find many change agents … but only if people are given a choice and feel they truly have permission to step forward and act." You must build excitement around the Big Opportunity and develop a feeling that one "Wants To" (not "Has To") contribute.
By removing barriers such as inefficient processes or hierarchies, leadersprovide the freedom necessary for employees to work across boundariesand create real impact.
Enable Action by Removing Barriers
“Innovation is less about generating brand-new ideas and more about knocking down barriers to making
those ideas a reality.”
~John Kotter, Accelerate
44%
of leaders agree that their own management
strategies are too bureaucratic and are a nuisance
STEP 5
Do you know where your organization’s barriers are?
Have past change initiatives in your organization failed? If so, what barriers stopped them from succeeding?
Which of the most common barriers do you have — silo parochialism, pressure to make quarterly numbers, complacency, rules and procedures, or a limited number of change leaders?
Barriers can be commonly stated and accepted statements that, while appearing helpful, can deter attempts to get past legacy obstacles. These are statements like, "It's just not done that way," or, "We tried that before — it didn't work."
Over time, the hierarchies that serve organizations so well in terms of efficiency and order can limit transformation. The cross-functional Guiding Coalition can work in tandem with hierarchical management to help change leaders over come barriers.
Wins are the molecules of results. They must be collected, categorized,and communicated — early and often — to track progress and energizeyour volunteers to drive change.
Generate Short-Term Wins
It takes about six years of hard work to
become an overnight success.
~Seth Godin
STEP 6
Do you generate and celebrate wins?
What are some examples of initiatives in your organization that were successful and part of a sustained effort? Why did they work?
How often do you hear about successes in your organization? If rarely, is it because there aren't any, or because they aren't shared and celebrated?
Does your organization have what it takes to collect, correlate and celebrate wins?
A change vision can take a long time to achieve. Dr. Kotter's research has shown that generating and celebrating wins along the way is vital to acceleration towards and focus on the goal.
Change leaders must adapt quickly in order to maintain their speed. Whether it's a new way of finding talent or removing misaligned processes, they must determine what can be done — every day — to stay the course towards the vision.
Sustain Acceleration
Agile firms see a
in revenue when they employ leaders who strategically adapt to any situation.
37%increase
STEP 7
Are you balancing change management with change leadership?
Balance is the essential factor in sustaining acceleration. How do you counterweight the tendency to over-manage? Where are the opportunities for people up and down your organization to behave more like leaders?
Management Leadership
• Planning• Budgeting• Organizing• Staffing• Problem Solving• Measuring• Doing What We
Know How To Do• Producing
Dependable, Reliable Results
• Establishing Direction
• Aligning People• Motivating• Inspiring• Mobilizing People
to Achieve Astonishing Results
• Propelling Us Into The Future
To ensure new behaviors are repeated over the long-term, it's important that you define and communicate the connections between these behaviors and the organization's success.
Institute Change
When surveyed, 90% of managers and employees said the
importance of agility and speed has increased in the last 5 years.
STEP 8
How can you institute the change?
How do you use the persistent celebration of Big Opportunity wins to maintain the engagement of the volunteer army and embed these new ways of working in the organization?
The Big Opportunity
Volunteer Army
Results
How can you balance reliability and agility?
There must be clear communication and synchronization between the traditional hierarchical structure (on the left side) and the innovation network of volunteers (on the right side). How will you achieve this?
The need to transform is criticalIf you know you need to transform but aren't sure where to start, call us: We will teach you how to execute the 8 Steps yourselves.
Us You
We help clients transform into fast, agile organizations
We are the
world’s only firm capable of
combining our empirical research
and proprietary process to help your
organization truly transform itself. Learn
to lead your large-scale transformation
by working with our Advisory Services.
Build your change leadership skills
through our Center for Leaders. Or work
with both to create sustainable change
capacity and capability across all levels
of your organization. Regardless of the
approach, tangible business
impact is the result.
CONTACT US
Phone: (855) 400.4712Email: [email protected]: Kotterinternational.comTwitter: @KotterIntl